Barack Obama, a two-term president, is now vying for his third Primetime Emmy, which raises the question: could he become the most-awarded ex-president in history?
Barack Obama Could Win His Fifth Emmy — But Would That Make Him the Most-Awarded Ex-President?
Former President Barack Obama won the presidency twice, but the 22nd Amendment prevented him from going for the hat trick. The same rules don’t apply to the Emmy race, where the 42nd commander in chief is closing in on his third individual Primetime Emmy. Obama’s name was included among the Best Narrator nominees when nominations were announced on Tuesday for lending his voice to the Netflix docuseries Our Oceans, made in collaboration with Higher Ground, the production company run by the former POTUS and his FLOTUS, Michelle Obama.
Obama’s Emmy Journey
Obama is no stranger to this particular category having been nominated — and won — twice before. He received his first Best Narrator statuette in 2022 for narrating the Netflix-Higher Ground collab Our Great National Parks, and repeated the following year for another joint effort, Working: What We Do All Day. He and Michelle also won two Daytime Emmys in 2022 for producing animated children’s shows. The president-turned-producer notably hasn’t accepted these awards in-person, though: he’s remained a no-show at both the Primetime Emmys and the Creative Arts Emmys.
This year, one of America’s most popular former presidents is going toe-to-toe with America’s Dad. Tom Hanks looks to be Obama’s primary competition as the narrator of NBC’s wildlife docuseries The Americas. Other names in the mix include nature doc icon David Attenborough for BBC America’s Planet Earth: Asia, Idris Elba for National Geographic’s Erased: WW2’s Heroes of Color, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge for Prime Video’s Octopus!.
Presidential Awards in Entertainment
While Obama can boast to having the most Emmys of any ex-president, he’s not the only former Oval Office occupant to have received major entertainment industry awards. Here’s a rundown on all the presidents who have received Hollywood recognition.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961)
The Emmys liked Ike. Eisenhower received the ceremony’s first-ever Governors Award in 1956 as a tribute to the 34th president’s embrace of television as a communication medium.
Jimmy Carter (1977-1981)
Obama is the president to beat the Emmys, but Carter has the Grammys on lock. The 39th president — who died in December 2024 at age 100 — scored 10 nominations over the course of his post-Oval Office life and notched four wins, most recently receiving a posthumous Grammy in February. All of Carter’s statuettes were for Best Spoken Word Album — now called Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording — for the audio versions of his many books.
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Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)
Years before he left Hollywood for politics, the 40th president was honored by the still-young Golden Globes with the 1957 Hollywood Citizenship Award. It was the second and final year that the organization handed out that particular prize, which recognized recipients’ achievements in citizenship. Reagan is also one of two presidents with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Bill Clinton (1993-2001)
The 42nd president joins Carter as a Grammy winner with four nominations and two victories. Clinton received his first statuette in 2004 for Best Spoken Word Album For Children as part of the ensemble featured on the album Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf/Beintus: Wolf Tracks. One year later, he scored a solo Grammy in the Best Spoken Word Album category for narrating his autobiography, My Life.
Barack Obama (2009-2017)
Besides his aforementioned Emmy run for Best Narrator, Obama has been featured in three Emmy-winning productions, including a 2014 episode of Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis, but wasn’t personally in contention in those cases. The Higher Ground-backed documentary American Factory also received a directing Emmy in 2020. The Obamas’ production company also has several Daytime Emmys to its name courtesy of its animated children’s fare.
Donald Trump (2017-2021; 2025-present)
The 45th and 47th president received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007 when he was still hosting NBC’s hit reality series The Apprentice. That show also received two Emmy nominations for Best Reality Competition Program in 2004 and 2005, but lost to The Amazing Race both years.
Source: www.goldderby.com
